


Any Second Now

by schweinsty



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 03:09:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4288455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schweinsty/pseuds/schweinsty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simon will get up. He will. Any second now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Any Second Now

**Author's Note:**

> Written for leni_ba's prompt on comment-fic on livejournal: any Whedonverse. any. We aren't defeated, we're just taking a breather while lying down.

He'll get up. He will. Any second now, he'll get up and go check on River--now Kaylee's finally gotten her to sleep. Any second now, he'll go and make sure her pulse is steady and she's not in danger of any more seizures or hallucinations, like she's spent the last three days having since they'd landed on that gorram planet. Any second now, he'll go and make sure whatever altered state she's in is just the one she's always in, now, as opposed to the one she was in as a result of whatever drugs they gave her three days ago.

Any second, now.

"Thought you'd be checkin' on your sister, Doc."

He doesn't hear Mal come in several minutes later, lost in his thoughts, but the man's tone demands attention.

"She's resting," Simon says. When he doesn't hear retreating footsteps, he opens his eyes.

Mal's leaning against the door frame, wiping grease from off his hands with a dirty rag, looking calm and comfortable and as if he has absolutely no intention of leaving any time soon.

Damn it.

"Even so," Mal says, and there's something harder in his voice though he doesn't even turn to look at Simon. "Never can know 'bout drugs all the way out here. Thought you'd want to be running some checks on her, least ways."

What for? Simon almost says-but stops himself, just before he speaks. Even if they hurt River's mind more than-more than it already had been, all he can do is treat the physical symptoms. There's no way he can deal with the--no way he can fix--

His eyes burn. He rubs his hands over his face and doesn't speak for a minute, and he hears Mal's shirt rustle as the captain turns and gives him a long once-over.

"She's never going to be better," Simon says eventually. "Barring a miracle. And I don't-I don't believe in--she's never going to be well again."

Mal shifts. Simon doesn't lift his hands away from his eyes, but he imagines Mal's tucking the rag into his back pocket and standing up straight, like he does on the flight deck.

"No, she won't," is what he says, and there's not a lot of kindness in it, because that, like 'And your point is?' and "'You knew that a long time ago, Doc,' is left unspoken.

"Okay," Simon says. He takes a breath and digs his palms, hard, into his eyes, and tenses and sits up. "Right. Excuse me. I need to run an EKG scan."

He walks out past Mal and straightens his rumpled waistcoat as he goes.


End file.
